Ask the Coaches: Speedwork-Long or Short

Thursday, January 1, 2004, 12:00 am

Q: I am a 35-year-old 10k and 5k racer. My PB's are 38:53 and 18:07 respectively. I have been running for 5 years now and feel that I have a lot of room to improve. I am always asking myself if I am doing the right training. Last year I did not do many mile or km repeats for my speedwork. So I thought that by doing more of that this year it may help my times. Is shorter distance speedwork better (400m, 200m etc) or would these longer distances be better? I run about 50 miles per week.

A: At 50 miles a week you should have the strength to incorporate "all" of the key workouts every distance runner, from the miler to the marathoner, needs to employ regularly in order to top off his or her arsenal: "pure speed" reps (200m or less), short reps (400m to 800m), medium reps (800m to 1200m), long reps (1200m to 1600m) and tempo runs. For suggestions on how to incorporate these into an existing training plan, please see this article: http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=5610[3].